Study: 31% of young women hospitalized for H1N1 flu were pregnant

[tetano]

Close to a third of all reproductive-age (15 to 44 years) US women who were hospitalized for treatment of 2009 pandemic influenza were pregnant, according to estimates in a study in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (AJOG). Using population-based data from the Emerging Infections Program in 10 states, researchers examined the characteristics of hospitalized reproductive-age women during the 2009 pandemic and the four flu seasons from 2005-06 through 2008-09. They found that pregnant women made up 31.0% (489 of 1,577) of the reproductive-age women hospitalized for pandemic flu and 23.5% (150 of 639) of those hospitalized with seasonal flu. In both pregnant and nonpregnant women, antiviral treatment was significantly more common for pandemic flu than for seasonal flu (86.5% vs 24.0% for pregnant women, 82.0% vs 55.2% for nonpregnant women). Also, in both seasonal and pandemic flu cases, nonpregnant women were more likely to have an underlying condition other than pregnancy. The authors say their findings underscore the importance of flu vaccination during pregnancy.

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/swineflu/news/apr2111flunewsscan.html